


Grasp Onto The Smallest Hope

by messedupstargazer



Series: Rae's Whumptober 2019 [6]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Bad Puns, Barry Allen Sees The Good In Leonard Snart, Barry Allen Whump, CPR, Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation, Don't copy to another site, Eh No One Will Notice, Hurt Barry Allen, I Also Forgot How Barry Gets Out OF His Suit, Injury Recovery, Leonard Snart Has a Heart, Leonard Snart is in Denial, Leonard Snart to the Rescue, M/M, Manhandling, Manhandling Barry Out Of His Suit, Protective Leonard Snart, Terrible Lines, Whumptober 2019, i'm garbage, very bad puns
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-14
Updated: 2019-10-14
Packaged: 2020-12-15 22:35:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,811
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21025838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/messedupstargazer/pseuds/messedupstargazer
Summary: Whumptober Prompt #13/#17Chest compressions.  Breath.  Breath.  Chest compressions.  Gasp like there’s no air.  Breath.  Breath.  Listen to his heart.  Don’t hear anything.  Chest compressions.  Don’t panic, don’t paNIC, DON’T PANIC.





	Grasp Onto The Smallest Hope

Chest compressions. Breath. Breath. Chest compressions. Gasp like there’s no air. Breath. Breath. Listen to his heart. Don’t hear anything. Chest compressions. Don’t panic, don’t paNIC, DON’T PANIC. Breath. Breath. Nothing. Start chest compressions again.

“Stay with me, Barry, stay with me.” Mutter under breath. Barely notice the water vapor. Jacket is still sticking to skin. Hope that the cold won’t kill him faster.

Don’t look at his slack, angelic face. Rip off mask just in case it’s impeding his breathing. Check his airway again. Don’t think about doing CPR on his lifeless body. Continue doing chest compressions. Breath. Breath. Check his pulse. Check again.

Panic.

“No, no, no, please, Barry, stay with me. Don’t go, don’t go, stay with me, please.”

Feel lost. Feel scared. Feel angry.

“You bastard! How dare you? Come back, you bastard! Come back!”

Clench your hand into a fist. Pound on his chest. His body jerks. A small trickle of water comes out of his mouth. Grasp onto the smallest hope. Do it again. And again.

… 

With the greatest sound Len had ever heard in his life, Barry coughed, throwing up water and bile as his airways cleared. Len turned Barry onto his side, and the coughing became easier. When he stopped throwing up, and his breathing seemed to come naturally, Len hooked his arms around Barry’s knees and back, hauling him into Len’s arms. He really wished he could take Barry to Star Labs where his friends could help him, but there was no way he could do that. Len would have to leave his bike behind, he couldn’t hold onto an unconscious Barry and drive at the same time, but thankfully, he had a safehouse a couple of blocks away so he planned out a route in his head. They were in a neighborhood where nobody ever looked out their windows, so he could just run with an unmasked Flash in his arms and no one would see anything, or say anything if they did.

In exactly fifteen point seven minutes, Len fumbled for his keys in his back pocket, trying to balance an unconscious Flash and open his locked door at the same time. It took him fourteen point three seconds, an increase from his usual ten point nine, to get the door open and manhandle Barry inside. He set Barry down on the nearby couch, glad he had had the foresight to put the couch close to the door, though he had done it in case he needed a quick shield or barricade. He grabbed the throw pillows Lisa had given him as gag gifts, the ones with the Flash and Captain Cold personas on each, and tried to set Barry up so he was comfortable but still kept his airways clear and his chest without too much pressure on it. He wasn’t a doctor by any means, but he’d read enough from the medical textbooks the prison libraries had available to know he needed to keep the stress off of Barry’s chest. Soon as he was satisfied, he wrapped Barry in as many blankets as he could find.

Soon after, Barry’s wonderful, beautiful green eyes fluttered open. Len’s entire body sagged in relief. Barry’s eyebrows knit together in confusion, his mouth moving stiltedly.

“Barry?” Len asked, trying to be gentle.

“-one.” Barry struggled to get out, coughing again.

“One? One what?”

Barry tried to clear his throat. “Phone.”

Len pat down his jacket, and pulled a waterlogged phone out of his pocket. He grimaced. He hadn’t taken anything out of his pockets before jumping into the water after Barry.

“I have others.” Len stated, setting the now useless phone on the coffee table.

He bolted to the bedroom and easily got into his safe, the one where he kept his important documents for the apartment like ownership papers and fake identities in case he needed to run, and pulled out the first burner phone he saw. When he returned, he saw Barry trying to reach for the dead phone.

“Use this one, this one works.” Len pressed the phone into Barry’s hands.

Barry’s hands were shaking as he tried to type a number into the text message function. He kept slipping so Len gently took it from him, listening ardently. Barry rattled off a number, a local one, so it was either Cisco or his father.

“What do you want to say?” Len asked quietly.

“Cisco- it’s Bar. Am safe. Will come back ASAIC.” Barry panted, sounding exhausted. “Am safe, aren’t I?”

Len chuckled dryly. “Yes because I’ve gone to all of this trouble to pull you out of a river, given you CPR, and dragged your dumb Hero ass all the way to one of my apartments to kill you. It’s all a part of my master plan.”

Barry’s mouth quirked into a small smile. Len would deny ever feeling a flutter of butterflies in his stomach like a schoolgirl at seeing that smile.

“Typed and sent.” Len said, showing Barry the phone.

Barry nodded and closed his eyes again.

Len sighed, feeling just a tad guilty but shook Barry anyway. “Nope. You can’t rest just yet. You gotta help me get you out of this suit. You’re freezing.”

Barry didn’t open his eyes, he merely hit a button on the chest plate of his suit and it became more relaxed than Len’d ever seen it.

“Come on, you can’t help me?” Len teased, feeling a little better about getting back into their usual rhythm. “You’re gonna make me strip you alone?”

Barry didn’t answer him.

Len checked his pulse and breathing, and found them both strong. It seemed Barry’s metahuman healing factor was putting him back together at record speed. Len double checked them again, just in case.

Then he soldiered on, manhandling Barry out of the Flash suit. Barry must’ve been more than exhausted to let him do this alone because all he found underneath the Flash’s red _not_-leather, as Barry once insisted, was Barry’s smooth marble skin and toned muscles. He didn’t even know that Barry had a six-pack, but to be honest, it made sense. Flash was strong enough to take on guys like King Shark and Gorilla Grodd so having a six-pack and muscles that almost made Len drool didn’t seem too far-fetched.

When he got to the legs aspect of the suit, he hesitated. Barry only wore his boxers underneath, and those certainly couldn’t stay but he did not want to do that alone. But it seemed Barry was good and out, and wouldn’t be helping. So Len tried to push his personal feelings for Barry, and definitely his attraction to Barry’s stunning runner’s physique, as deep in the back of his mind as he could and got to work. He peeled the fabric away, first from the suit, then from the soaking wet cotton that was the only thing left protecting Barry’s modesty. As soon as he could, he threw the blankets back over Barry so the temptation to look would not have its day. He hung the soaking wet Flash suit over his shower curtain, with Barry’s boxers right next to it. Hopefully, they could dry a little that way.

A low moan caught his attention. He returned to the couch to find that Barry was beginning to wake up a little.

“Come on, baby, wake up.” Len whispered, shaking Barry’s shoulder a little.

“Baby?” Barry blinked his eyes open, much more coherent that the last time.

“What? No, I called you _Barry_.” Len said, cursing his stupid mouth for acting without his permission. “You must still have water in your ears.”

“Water?” Thankfully, Barry seemed to buy it. “Wait, when did I get wet? When-” Barry reached up to his face and recognized that he was no longer dressed. “Where is my suit?!?”

“Relax, Scarlet,” Len smirked, enjoying that Barry was turning the color of his nickname, “It’s drying in my bathroom. You were soaking wet, you needed to get out of those wet clothes.”

Barry nodded. “That explains why I’m so cold.”

“What’s the last thing you remember?” Len asked.

Barry frowned. “Jewelry store. A new meta with some kind of either super strength or molecular density rearrangement… That’s it.”

“He got you pretty good.” Len filled in. “You took a bad hit to the head, and went flying over the bridge into the Mississippi.”

Barry stared at him. “Then… how did I get here? With my suit in your bathroom? Did you pull me out?”

Len distinctly ignored the memory of panicking in the murky water, desperately searching for the speedster.

“Eh, you more washed up on shore.” Len lied. “I couldn’t have anyone find you and know your secret. How else would I still be able to continue working without you constantly throwing me in jail?”

Barry stared at him, his mouth twitching until he smiled.

“You saved my life.”

“I merely did what was necessary for me to do what I want to do.” Len said.

“Then why did you give me CPR?” Barry asked. “I can feel it, you know. I can feel my ribs knitting themselves back together and my lungs aching from the water. You said I took a bad hit to the head. Not the chest.”

“You probably broke your ribs when you hit the water.” Len tried.

Barry’s smug smile was spreading across his face. “No I didn’t. You saved me.”

“If you start with that ‘there’s good in you’ shit again, I’m kicking you out.” Len snarled, his hackles rising.

Barry put up his hands in surrender. “Wouldn’t want that. You got a phone I can borrow? I need to tell the team I’m okay.”

“I already sent them a text.” Len grumbled.

Barry’s smug smile got worse.

“Hey, that was your fault.” Len accused. “You were moving around trying to get a phone, I had to send it because you couldn’t.”

“I was?” Barry asked.

Len nodded.

“I don’t remember any of that.” The smug smile vanished, replaced by a worried frown.

“You took a bad hit to the head and fell off a bridge.” Len said, gentler. “Cut yourself some slack.”

Barry nodded back, then looked Len up and down. “Are you okay?”

“Ask yourself that.” Len said. “You’re the one who fell off a bridge.”

“You seem cold.” Barry started.

“Why thank you, and me without my parka.” Len shot back.

“No seriously, you look cold.” Barry tried again.

“The cold never bothered me anyway, Scarlet.” Len smirked.

“Then why are your hands shaking?” Barry asked bluntly, ignoring the terrible line.

That caught Len off guard. He looked down and, shit, Barry was right. He shoved his hands and found his jacket still soaked through.

“Let me get out of these wet clothes and I’m sure they’ll _freeze_.” Len said, standing.

Barry groaned. “That was terrible!”

**Author's Note:**

> So this is my attempt at Whumptober, I'll be posting as much as I can, under this series. Not all will be Flash but each story will be Whumptober. Some will.
> 
> If you liked it, let me know! I fucking doubt it but let me know if you're like the one person who did. Come find me at bloodyfeverdreams on tumblr! Leave a comment or come say hi! Whatever you're comfortable with!


End file.
